Day 18: How to Clean Your Oven

I have a confession – I have never tried to clean my oven in the 2 years I’ve been married. I mean REALLY clean it. Sure, I’ve scraped stuff off the bottom (when, during the first Thanksgiving some of the turkey dripping spilled), but not a thorough job. AND I’ve let it get pretty bad…

The door is pretty bad too…

Once again (like on Tuesday), I found this cleaning tip at Ask Anna – a blog that has a WEALTH of information on cleaning!

You will need:

– baking soda

– water

– cloth

– something to scrub hard with (if your oven is really dirty)

Step 1: Create Baking Soda/Water Mixture

I start with a cup of baking soda and then added just a little bit of water. You want it to be a thin paste, so it can spread easily without being too runny. Shoot for something that looks like pancake batter.

I had to make up 2 cups to cover all the spots I wanted to hit in my oven.

Step 2: Spread Mixture

Spread the baking soda/water mixture all over the bottom of your oven, and hit any spots you may also have on the sides. I also used this same mixture and covered the glass on the oven door. Let this sit for at least 30 minutes. I let mine sit for 2 hours.

Step 3: Scrub hard

I scrubbed pretty hard, putting a lot of elbow grease into it. I was not seeing the results I was looking for, so I decided to let it continue to soak while I went to work for 5 hours.

Step 4: Wipe up the mess

So, by the time I got home at 6pm, I had to start making pizza (well, my husband made the pizza -except the dough) AND get the oven cleaned up. Unfortunately, even though I was not completely happy with the outcome, I needed to clean it up and move on with scheduled life.

I would have liked to spend more time scrubbing…. but, oh well. I read on Ask Anna that I should try using Arm & Hammer toothpaste and a toothbrush to scrub off the drips. I’ll have to try that next week!

The oven door looks better!!

I would say this is a pretty successful attempt at cleaning my oven. I just wish I had more time to work on it, but at least I DID spend some time working on it.

It’s better to tackle something a little at a time than never touch it, thinking you don’t have enough time to finish it.

That’s my experience with cleaning the inside of my oven. What experiences have you had?

Thanks so much for the tip! I got a little spoiled because the oven in my parents’ house is a self-cleaning one where it just gets super hot, then you wipe up any grime. But my oven is definitely not, and it needs a cleaning! Thanks for linking this up to The Fun In Functional!Jessi @ Practically Functional recently posted..Holiday Potpourri Simmer Pot